CLEAR: Choosing Life: Empowerment! Action! Results!

An individualized intervention to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS.

CLEAR is an evidence-based HIV prevention and health promotion intervention with people ages 16 and older, living with HIV/AIDS or at high-risk for HIV infection. CLEAR is a client-centered program delivered one-on-one using cognitive-behavioral techniques to change behavior. It provides clients with the skills necessary to live their best life and make healthy choices. The goal of the intervention is to help clients maintain health, reduce transmission of HIV, and other sexually transmitted diseases, and improve their quality of life.

CLEAR consists of five core skill sessions, 21 menu sessions, and a wrap-up session. The core elements of the intervention are introduced in the five core skill sessions. The core skill sessions teach the essential cognitive and behavioral skills of the program (i.e., positive self-talk, reframing, countering against negative thoughts, relaxation). Within these core skill sessions, clients also develop a personal life goal and an individual prevention plan that direct the focus and selection of subsequent menu sessions.

The counselor helps the individual select sessions from a menu of six domains to assist the client in achieving his or her prevention goal(s). The six domains address sexual risk, substance use risk, health care and self-care, treatment adherence, disclosure, and HIV stigma. Each domain consists of sessions that help the client apply and practice the intervention’s essential strategies, which were initially introduced in the core skill sessions.

Currently, AIDS Delaware is the only agency in the State to provide this one-of-a-kind, specialized intervention that lines up with both the National HIV/AIDS Strategy (NHAS) and with Dr. Edward Gardner’s Cascade. The HIV/AIDS treatment cascade is a way to show, in visual form, the numbers of individuals living with HIV/AIDS who are actually receiving the full benefits of the medical care and treatment they need. Therefore, AIDS Delaware provides the CLEAR intervention supporting these processes in the NHAS and Gardner’s HIV/AIDS Treatment Cascade.

According to the White House’s National HIV/AIDS Strategy (2015), there is a vision statement that reminds us that one day “the United States will become a place where new HIV infections are rare and when they do occur, every person regardless of age, gender, race/ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender identity or socio-economic circumstance, will have unfettered access to high quality, life-extending care, free from stigma and discrimination.” AIDS Delaware captures this vision by providing various services that include the intervention CLEAR: Choosing Life: Empowerment, Action, Results!

If you or someone you know would benefit from being in the CLEAR, please contact Dr. Herman Ortez who specializes in this intervention at AIDS Delaware for an appointment or more information. The number to reach him is (302) 652-6776.

HIV/AIDS Content Notice: Since HIV is spread chiefly and primarily through sexual practices or by sharing needles, prevention messages on this site may address these topics. HIV prevention materials funded by CDC must be approved by local program review panels. However, the materials may be considered controversial by some viewers. This warning is included in compliance with CDC requirements for HIV educational materials Section 5, subsections 3 & 4, which are now (starting in the year 2002) extended to include information published on the Worldwide Web.